


Doing Time, Alternate Ending

by RileyC



Series: Doing Time 'verse [3]
Category: Oz - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Angst, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-10
Updated: 2010-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-10 01:22:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RileyC/pseuds/RileyC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And this is the choice behind door number 2...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doing Time, Alternate Ending

Hmm. Of course, for that door-opening thing to work, it would probably help if he knew what car he drove these days.

Standing on the sidewalk, Toby looked at the row of cars parked at the curb, wishing one of them would beep to let him know it was his. After a moment, though, some instinct did push him over toward one -- and wouldn’t you know it, a cop was standing there, writing out a ticket.

Still, if bad luck for Tobias Beecher now amounted to getting a parking ticket, he would take it and be happy.

“Ah,” he got that much out as he started over there, as the police officer turned to look at him, and then he froze in place, unable to process anything but, “Oh my God…”

The police officer was tall, and built like a brick house; the amazing body shown off to advantage in the dark blue, snug-fitting uniform. A gun belt rode his hips and accentuated his ass. The short-sleeved shirt displayed muscular arms, and the lower part of a tattoo peeked out from underneath. A hat was pushed back on a handsome head, blue eyes sparkling with so many emotions as a knockout smile finally won out. “Hey, Beech,” he said, sounding like his throat might have been a little tight.

“Chris…?” His own voice was choked, and he had to blink to clear his vision. “Are you real?” he asked, afraid to ask, but more terrified of it not being true.

The brilliance of the smile dimmed a bit, and Toby could have sworn there was a shimmer of moisture in the dark blue eyes. “Oh yeah, babe, I’m real.”

Yes, oh fuck _yes_! He was real, he was there, and Toby ran trembling hands along the broad shoulders and down his chest, closing his eyes and feeling a fresh burn of tears as he felt the strong heart beating against his palm. “You’re alive. Chris, you’re alive,” he whispered, wanting to wrap his arms around him, wanting to kiss him, wanting to climb him like a tree and never come down.

“Yeah,” was all Chris could get out, skimming his knuckles along Toby’s cheek with the same sense of wonder. “And you’re really here,” he added, like he was scared to believe it all too. Like he’d been waiting a long time, and hope had been running low? “I heard a call on the radio, about some guy named Beecher who’d gotten up and walked away from being hit by a car, and…” He stopped, the sentence unfinished as if his throat had clogged, and could only brush his fingers through Toby’s hair.

Toby backed up to look him over again, not losing tactile contact, though, his senses dazzled with the touch and sound and smell and sight of him. “You’re a cop?” he said at last, because that was easiest to put into words.

Kissable lips twitched with a sardonic smile. “What can I say? Fate loves irony.”

Yes, and maybe Fate was a crazy old coot who also loved clocks.

Toby _hmphed_ with a put-out air that he knew Chris didn’t buy for a minute. “You get to be a cop, but I’m still a lawyer?”

“Gotta be some constants, Beecher.”

“Like us?”

Chris cupped a hand around his neck, fingers kneading lightly and making Toby feel like sparklers were going off all through his body. “Kinda lookin’ that way, yeah.”

Toby nodded, liking the sound of that, remembering what Chris had told him in another time and place--

_“I’ll see you,” Chris said, practically glowing with love._

“Where?” he had demanded, bruised and battered, but hurting from so much more than that.

Smile cocky as ever, Chris said, “Back here, or heaven.”

“You really think we’re getting into heaven?”

“Ah, you and me together? God doesn’t have the balls to keep us out.”

As if reading his thoughts, or maybe remembering too, Chris cocked his head in a familiar manner and winked. “Hey, bet you never pegged me for a prophet, huh?”

“Well,” Toby smiled back at him, at the knowledge of him being here and what that meant, “I have to say, this doesn’t exactly look like heaven, Chris.”

“Near enough for me.”

Yes, near enough. “For me, too.”

Him and Chris forever.

He liked the sound of that.

“So, want to show me around heaven, Officer Keller?” he asked, and wondered when that would stop making him smile.

“Yeah, laugh it up, Beech. Can you imagine how I felt?”

He did laugh, picturing Keller’s dismay all too easily. “But you’re good with it?” he asked, serious now.

Solemn as well, Chris nodded. “Yeah, I…” He paused, cleared his throat. “I’m not so stupid I’d piss on a second chance, Toby.”

Looking at him, drinking in the glorious sight of him, Toby felt another of those hard-to-contain moments coming on. “Chris,” he stroked wondering fingers over the shiny badge, let them slip down his arm to clasp his hand, “what would happen if I kissed you right here?”

Chris squeezed his fingers. “Don’t know. That something you might do?”

Toby nodded.

Chris smiled and leaned in closer, close enough Toby could smell lingering traces of his aftershave and the cinnamon gum he’d been chewing. Near enough his lips grazed Toby’s cheek and the corner of his mouth. “I get off duty at six,” he whispered.

Toby stepped back with a huff. “You have got to be kidding me, Keller.”

Smiling at him, loving him like everything bad was long forgotten, Chris said, “Hey, you want me to be a stand up guy or not?”

He sighed dramatically. “Six o’clock?”

“It’s only a couple of hours.”

Toby nodded again, but with a trace of worry. “A lot can happen in two hours.”

Looking him over thoughtfully, Chris asked, “Would it make you feel better if I didn’t get out of your sight for the next two hours?”

“Like you _wouldn’t_ follow me home and find a reason to hang around anyway?”

Handsome face lit with another smile, Chris said, “Yeah, well, I think something can be arranged.”

“Good. Arrange it. Because, Chris,” Toby stepped close again, curving a hand along Chris's face, “I am never letting you go again,” he finished, and watched Chris absorb that promise like it was what he’d waited for all his life.

There were a thousand things he wanted to know, questions zooming through his mind and tumbling over each other -- but that was okay, because there was going to be time enough for that, for everything, at last.

Well, there was just one thing… “Chris, is Schillinger here?”

Looking at him with understanding, Chris shook his head, smiling. “Nah, not a sign of him. Second thing I checked for.”

Toby started to ask what had been the first, realized that was fairly obvious, and nodded back, satisfied all was right with the world. This one, anyway, and that was enough for him.


End file.
